St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith talks about Debbie Montgomery, the first female police officer recruited, hired and trained in the St. Paul Police Department, during a ceremony honoring her in St. Paul on May 3, 2016. Montgomery’s rookie photo and a plaque are now mounted on a wall at the Western District headquarters. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

More than 40 years after Debbie Montgomery made history by becoming St. Paul’s first female police officer, a photograph of her as a rookie cop was unveiled in the police department’s Western District community room Tuesday.

Montgomery’s photo and a plaque about her now join other pictures that grace the room’s walls and tell the story of the department’s history.

Debbie Montgomery became St. Paul’s first female police officer in 1975. This photo of her was installed in the front of the Western District community room. (Courtesy Hand In Hand Productions)

When Montgomery became a St. Paul police officer in 1975, she was “setting a trail and a history that had never been set for the city of St. Paul,” said Police Chief Thomas Smith at a ceremony at the Western District at 389 N. Hamline Ave. “… Not only was she the first female police officer … but she was the first African-American female as well. She has been a mentor and a role model throughout her career and even as we speak today (since) she’s been retired.”

Smith, who became a St. Paul officer in 1989, recalled on Tuesday a story from when he was a young cop. There was a “frantic call” on the police radio about a big street brawl. Officers weren’t supposed to respond to a call when they had a prisoner in the back of their squad, which Smith did, but he and his partner decided to “because when Debbie Montgomery calls, we come arunning,” Smith said.

“And in the middle of Rice Street is a battle, literally, people spilling out of this bar and fighting with everybody, swearing at the police and right up in front was my dear friend and then sergeant … Debbie Montgomery,” Smith said. “… She did not take any crap from anybody and being a first, working her way up through a department of all men, for a long time, was not easy. So, Debbie knew when we were in the middle of that battle (on Rice Street) … she took charge.”

Montgomery, who also served as an assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, rose through the ranks of the St. Paul Police Department to become a senior commander. She retired in 2003.

Montgomery, a former St. Paul City Council member, said she was honored by the recognition on Tuesday.

“I was a city planner by profession, so that’s what I was doing before I got here and yet when I look back, I couldn’t have found a better profession to go into,” she said. “My heart is in it. … It’s all about public service.”

Mara Gottfried has been a Pioneer Press reporter since 2001, mostly covering public safety. Gottfried lived in St. Paul as a young child and returned to the Twin Cities after graduating from the University of Maryland. You can reach her at 651-228-5262.

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And the liberals hate her because she has the audacity to vote republican.

Highlander

Really!!! She competed for the DFL endorsement so she could vote republican. Nah, I don’t think so Bunky.

George Orwell

Does it count if he/she is transgender?

Pax Humana

Was that person transgendered, a.k.a. sexually deviant, perverted, and confused as well as demonically possessed?

StPaulHeartandSoul

You are hereby awarded the most ignorant comment of the week award.

Highlander

It should be noted that Carolyn Bailey joined the force in 1961, long before Debbie Montgomery and was the first female Sergeant and Lieutenant.

StPaulHeartandSoul

Although I was very fond of Carolyn Bailey, she never went through a police academy or worked the street. She had been hired as a “Policewoman” and was grandfathered in and promoted to “Policewoman Sergeant” with non enforcement duties in the early 70s along with 2 females who came on before her. She was later made a regular police lieutenant with full powers, the first time she was ever a police officer. Debbie Montgomery was the first to have to meet all the standards and qualifications as her male counterparts. Carolyn Bailey had no involvement in the prosecution of the Black Panther assassins of Officer Sackett.

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